Economists and Crises

The report presents survey results from 920 economics students and graduates across 85 countries, finding that a vast majority believe the discipline's reliance on neoclassical economics fails to prepare them for real-world crises. Key findings highlight a lack of teaching on alternatives to the price mechanism during pandemics, the absence of links between the economy and the environment, and a failure to address systemic racial and gender biases. The authors advocate for curriculum reform that incorporates other social sciences and diverse schools of thought to produce economists capable of addressing contemporary global challenges.

• A significant majority of economics students and graduates believe the current educational framework is inadequate for addressing modern crises, with 78.5% agreeing that the COVID-19 pandemic should serve as a turning point for how the subject is taught.
• Economics education often fails to provide alternatives to the price mechanism for resource allocation during crises; 76.9% of respondents did not believe the price mechanism is the best method for allocation during a crisis, yet many reported a lack of instruction on alternatives.
• There is a perceived disconnect between the value society places on workers and the wages they receive, a link that 44.0% of surveyed students and graduates (including 39.2% at the PhD level) felt was not taught in their courses.
• Students perceive a high level of political bias in the discipline, with only 8.5% agreeing that economists' proposals are free from such bias, while the report argues that mainstream papers rarely disclose inherent biases.
• Systemic bias is a prevalent issue in economics curricula, with 64.5% of students believing their courses suffer from biases or prejudices related to race, gender, or class. Specifically, female respondents were 83.9% more likely to identify gender bias in their courses.
• Economics degrees frequently fail to integrate environmental science, with 42.3% of respondents disagreeing that they were taught how the economy is connected to or embedded in the environment.
• There is overwhelming student support for an interdisciplinary approach to economics, with 89.2% agreeing that economists would be better equipped to respond to crises if they interacted more with other social sciences.

APA

Hanney, O., Watson, C., & Ngidi, B. (n.d.). Economists and Crises. Institute for Economic Justice. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Economists-and-Crises-1.pdf

Chicago

Hanney, Oliver, Catriona Watson, and Bandile Ngidi. Economists and Crises. Institute for Economic Justice, n.d. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Economists-and-Crises-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hanney |first1=Oliver |last2=Watson |first2=Catriona |last3=Ngidi |first3=Bandile |title=Economists and Crises |publisher=Institute for Economic Justice |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Economists-and-Crises-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hanneyndeconomists, author = {Hanney, Oliver and Watson, Catriona and Ngidi, Bandile}, title = {{Economists and Crises}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Economists-and-Crises-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }